The GMO chief strategist highlights the factors behind the market's bullish bias, abnormally high corporate earnings, current valuation levels, a slowdown in productivity, and the great paradigm shift in natural resources.

In this special one-hour presentation, Morningstar experts share their takes on how investors can navigate a world with slightly overvalued stocks, an uncertain interest-rate environment, and a slow-growing economy.

You should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Matthews Asia Funds before making an investment decision. A prospectus with this and other information about the Funds may be obtained by visiting matthewsasia.com. Please read the prospectus carefully ...

All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. The value of investments can go down as well as up, and investors may not get back the full amount invested. The information provided in this posting is not a complete analysis of every material fact regarding any country, region, ...

JAForlines Global: The World Is Unbalanced – Deal With It

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The material contained herein as well as any attachments is not an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. It is presented only to provide information on investment strategies, opportunities and, on occasion, summary reviews on various portfolio performances. Returns can vary dramatically in separately managed accounts as such factors as point of entry, style range and varying execution costs at different broker/dealers can play a role. The material contains the current opinions of the author, which are subject to change without notice. Statements concerning financial market trends are based on current market conditions, which will fluctuate. References to specific securities and issuers are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as, recommendations to purchase or sell such securities. Forecasts are inherently limited and should not be relied upon as an indicator of future results. There is no guarantee that these investment strategies will work under all market conditions, and each advisor should evaluate their ability to invest client funds for the long-term, especially during periods of downturn in the market. Some products/services may not be offered at certain broker/dealer firms.

02/14/2013

New York, January 17, 2013 Advisor Update®New Year’s Edition2012 was another strange year for rates, credit, and risk markets—the best explanation for this is the historic alignment by the “Big Three” (US, EU, Japan) central banks to manipulate rates and liquidity conditions. The upshot is that some global equity sectors and regions performed well with only the benefit of massive easing, with little fundamental underpinning. We will provide a detailed review of 2012 in our Portfolio Update® and our Quarterly Webinar (see accompanying email to sign up), and instead focus here on our outlook for the rest of 2013.

There will be much discussion in 2013 on the US debt ceiling and deficit, global climate issues, the continuing crisis in the EU and whether Lance Armstrong actually confessed. All but the latter are grounded in a simple historical and economic fact that politicians, particularly in the US, continue to ignore: the US and other developed countries have not produced sufficient growth and innovation to keep up with rapidly growing emerging economies. This has been a major factor in the developed world’s relative economic underperformance in recent decades.

Politicians (and their lapdogs in the media) obfuscate by calling China a currency manipulator; they convince voters that discretionary spending cuts (Republicans) and tax hikes (Democrats), as opposed to meaningful Entitlement reform, will make US competitive again; and finally, they fail to create policies to improve K-12 education (like giving the private sector and not teachers unions a shot at fixing it) and immigration (why aren’t we recruiting the best foreign students, who are studying at our great Universities, to stay here?)

Obama and the Republicans can stick their heads in the sand all they want, but the real task ahead of the US (as well as EU countries and Japan) is to figure out how to compete with, service, and supply those fast growing countries, particularly in Asia. China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Hong Kong have all made huge investments in infrastructure and education in the last fifteen years and the result is GDP growth well above developed countries.

What could go wrong? Going into last year we thought the largest risk was the EU imploding and a rocky political regime change in China. Ultimately, ECB Chairman Mario Draghi bought the EU time to address their fiscal and banking crises and China struggled but managed to avoid a “hard landing” (their economy still grew 7.5%). In 2013, there seems to be a short term risk that the US politicians will top their August 2011 shenanigans. If we determine they will do their worst and risk derailing the fragile recovery the US has cobbled together since 2008, then we will proactively reduce risk in front of it. The best guess here is that there will be smoke and even fire, then the sound of another can rattling down the road.

As we look at investing in 2013, the global macro environment remains similar to last year in that most developed countries everywhere are in a battle to produce growth in a time of private sector deleveraging. This means that government bonds in those countries will most likely be range bound, producing low yields for the risk and negligible absolute returns.

Finally, if you are a credit fundamentalist, as we are, you do worry that financial conditions are too accommodative. This may not be the year when central bank policy finally crushes government bond prices, but that day is coming. We worry that the system that produced bubbles in internet stocks and houses has brewed one for bonds.

We look forward to meeting with many of our Advisors and Reps in 2013. The Global Tactical Allocation portfolios are an excellent “core” holding of client assets because of the focus on solid returns with proper risk management. Additionally, our Collective Investment Fund is an ideal QDIA and core option in your Retirement Plan lineup. Let’s have a great 2013 together!